Workers with Old Town-based Production Services of Maine start setting up the scaffolding in April for this season's Waterfront Concert Series in Bangor. City councilors believe they have come up with a solution to balance the benefits of the Waterfront Concerts with future economic development on the waterfront while still heeding the concerns of some West Side residents. Councilors favor a reconfiguration that would move the stage away from Railroad Street toward Hollywood Slots and rotate the structure to face the opposite direction.

BANGOR, Maine — City councilors believe they have come up with a solution to balance the varied benefits of the Waterfront Concerts with future economic development on the waterfront while still heeding the concerns of some West Side residents.

Pam Shadley, a Massachusetts-based landscape architect who has worked with the city for the past decade on the waterfront master plan, presented a handful of scenarios at a meeting Wednesday night.

Overwhelmingly, councilors favored a reconfiguration that would move the massive concert stage away from Railroad Street toward Hollywood Slots and rotate the structure to face the opposite direction.

Cary Weston, who chairs the City Council’s business and economic development committee, said the city and the concert series’ promoter have been willing to explore many options so far in hopes of finding the best fit.

“We want to embrace the opportunity that this [concert] series presents for Bangor,” he said. “We’ve invested millions of dollars to attract private development down there, so we need to be mindful of that as well.”

City leaders are hopeful that development includes a variety of mixed-use retail, restaurants and an anchor tenant such as a hotel.

Improvements to Bangor’s once-dormant waterfront have taken place incrementally over the past decade. Much of the initial work that was done was largely invisible but mandated by state and federal environmental agencies. Over the past several years, the area has seen a rebirth thanks to events such as the concert series, the KahBang festival and the American Folk Festival.

The waterfront master plan once included construction of a small amphitheater and a playground or “splashground,” but those elements have been abandoned.

Weston said the new configuration, which still needs a formal council vote and the approval of Waterfront Concerts, should address those complaints.

“If we’re going to embrace the waterfront as a music venue, we need to do it responsibly,” he said. “The future of the concerts needs to be mindful of those concerns.”

Other reconfiguration options were discussed Wednesday, but none was attractive to either the city or the promoter. One option was moving the entire series to Bass Park, which would take away the waterfront appeal. Another was an area known as the “roundhouse,” which is tucked between the Interstate 395 bridge and the Fireside Inn.

The bigger conversation, one that is still ongoing, is whether a permanent staging structure and covered pavilion will be built in the future.